Terms and concepts are simply explained. Illustrations are used extensively and are very helpful. Content is introduced followed by hands-on steps for the user to apply what was discussed. This is done in small sections and is easy to grasp, especially for beginners. The topics are organized in a logical, clear way. There are downloadable data files for the student to practice each skill.
The content and exercises are easy to follow. Illustrations with labels, tables, text boxes, and main text are displayed well. No interface issues seen. This is a very good book for beginners. Personally, I use a lot of keyboard shortcuts, and this book does a great job of presenting keyboard shortcuts throughout the book. I would like to suggest having an appendix that lists all of the keyboard shortcuts that were presented throughout the book. This book is very comprehensive for all MS Excel basics.
It covers basic formatting, formulas, conditional formatting, PivotTables, and even shortcuts. This book covers all basics I This book covers all basics I would cover in a first and second semester MS Excel course. All the text appeared accurate but I was unable to check data files and data file names. Some images are unable to be viewed clearly in the book.
It is not crucial to the text but impossible to verify accuracy. This book focuses on MS Excel It was written in Currently MS Excel is available, soon to be something even newer. MS Excel does not change that much year to year so this book is still fairly relevant. It will not be relevant in 5 years but for now it is still well worth utilizing. The book is quite clear and easy to navigate.
Chapters are well defined with terms, figures, and important terms are clearly marked and bold. By the nature of the book it can be somewhat unclear navigating between text and the actual software on a computer but again that is at no fault to the textbook. The textbook uses the exact same format and terminology definitions throughout. The figures and directions are consistent throughout each chapter. The assignments and tasks are clearly numbered for each chapter. Very easy to follow throughout the textbook.
The text flows easily from chapter to chapter and from section to section in each chapter. The textbook uses scaffolding to build the student's knowledge and skill set from each chapter to chapter and each section to section within each chapter.
Many other texts jump too quickly into advanced MS Excel tasks without building a knowledge base. This textbook scaffolds skills at an appropriate pace for a beginner. The text is organized easily from chapter to chapter and from section to section in each chapter. This textbook is well organized for a beginner working through the entire book. It lacks the ability to easily focus on one particular skill.
The table of contents does not fully designate all that each chapter covers. This may be difficult to locate a particular skill or task, i. PivotTable, without using the appendix to find multiple entries. The text is perfectly clear and easy to read. Some images are blurred or too dark to see exactly what the student should have on their MS Excel spreadsheet. This contains many charts, graphs, and images. There are no apparent grammatical errors. Multiple images, figures, and charts use abbreviations.
Cultural references do not apply to this textbook on MS Excel. The examples used in the text appear to be from a wide range of gender, race, and ethnicity.
This is a very thorough and comprehensive textbook for beginning MS Excel. The book is easy to follow and scaffolds skills at an appropriate pace for a beginner. The only downside to the book is the quickly dated material. This is the case with all textbooks pertaining to software. I would see no issues using this text for a first and second semester MS Excel course. Unfortunately I could not review the data files for content, clarity or accuracy.
This book covers the basics of Microsoft Excel It includes all the basic skills necessary to create most documents in excel. It uses the terminology well so it can be translated precisely. The practical uses of logical and lookup functions, The practical uses of logical and lookup functions, charts, tables, and PivotTables.
The book is accurate, the modern take on the assignments that are logical in career application makes it a good addition to any course needing to teach Excel to first-timers.
Microsoft Excel updates on a trend every three years. This will stay updated for a two years at least, depending on how different the newer version is. The books purpose is to introduce Microsoft Excel to a first-time user.
Students can learn Microsoft Excel from the learn guide with the program, but this text teaches Excel with its most common practical uses.
It expands more on each application or function it reviews within its section. This is actually one of the only pieces of work I have been able to find where it teaches Microsoft Excel , that makes it easy to divide into sections.
A lot of work out there has each assignment build up slowly for at least 10 or more pages. This keeps assignments clear and concise but also using different skills. The ideal method of any work written for Microsoft Excel is that it slowly introduces every basic functionality of uses. The text does a nice job of moving through a little quicker to get to the practicality of using the functions.
The visuals are useful in the work, since it can show where to go from time to time. I did have issues scrolling through and having pages go blank.
I would have to re-scroll multiple times back and forth to get the page to show up. The pictures when they showed did a nice job of showing exactly where you need to go to understand how to do a certain function. There is no culturally insensitive or offensive material in this book. The book is written well to translate. All of the Excel topics related to those studies are included in a sequence and format that would allow students to review All of the Excel topics related to those studies are included in a sequence and format that would allow students to review established skills and learn new skills using a split computer screen and a learn by example mode.
The detailed hyperlinked Table of Contents was more than adequate for finding search topics. There are too many versions of Excel in daily use to expect a single book to be completely accurate with items such as screen shots and still be practical. The various versions, however, are close enough to each other to allow a student to pick up the necessary skills while accommodating to whichever version of Excel is available.
This text is highly relevant to the computational requirements of the business and finance courses of interest to this reviewer.
Recent press releases imply that future versions of Excel might be of even greater use. Longevity is another matter. The continual updating of Excel within and between platforms will make this text too outdated in a few years unless periodic updating is maintained.
This text is sufficiently clear by style and detailed content to allow students to master Excel on their own. This is particularly important to students who need to upgrade their Excel skill set in parallel with handling coursework for which Excel is a necessary support.
The nature of the topic imposes a high degree of consistency. The clear, detailed format used for skill building accommodates to the inherent consistency of the subject matter in a useful manner that supports strong self-learning. Modularity, in terms of self-standing sections and subsections, is limited by the need to learn various sub-skills in sequence.
Introductory material needs to be mastered before more advanced topics can be addressed. The result is that early chapters need to be studies in sequence, but later chapters can be rearranged or skipped depending on the needs of the supported course.
Therefore, an individual learner should start at the front and work to the back spending time and effort in inverse proportion to existing Excel skill levels. This reviewer tested this strategy and was pleased with the results. This reviewer used the online format rather than the pdf format on a iMac, for example, because the links to data files worked with the online format but not with the pdf format. Other than that, the user interface for both formats were free of distortions and distractions.
This would facilitate using a split screen on which both the text and example exercises could be displayed together. This is a particularly effective method for Excel skill building. Using dual screens is even better. It would be convenient to mention somewhere in the early sections that Mac users might want to set a keyboard preference for using function keys as standard function keys so many of the shortcuts such as stipulating absolute references are easy to do. This reviewer will likely recommend this text to future classes as a convenient Excel review tool.
The book is covering all of the essential areas which a person will need when starting to use Excel. The content is based on Excel which is the most current package. The only issue is that this will need to be reviewed each time a new version of MS Office is released. The sections are presented in a logical order and items are easy to find within specific categories. The book is fairly comprehensive for a beginning book. I would not expect it to cover much more.
The table of contents clearly describes the topics covered in each chapter. The version of excel is a bit dated and the text focuses on the Windows version of excel. I was still able to work through most of the examples and the information presented is not really version specific, so most of the information should be alright.
The book was easy to follow. Things were well explained and the authors provided breakout boxes and screen shots to help the reader follow. The text flows easily from section to section. Many of the sections could be assigned independent of the others, however, due to the nature of the material, you will need to understand the beginning chapters before tackling the later chapters.
I did not have any difficulties navigating the text. The screenshots were helpful and rendered fine. I think the book would be useful for an introductory class in Excel or for a supplement in a class using Excel. I liked the fact that each of the chapters provided data for the students to follow along with the exercises and had summary practice exercises for students.
Unable to check accuracy for Assignments and Test sections for each chapter was not able to open. I could not open the Assignments and Tests links to check visually and to go through instructions assigned to the assessments.
Overall, I am very pleased with the content, organization, modular breakdown, and the basic skill sets covered. This textbook is very well-written. It is comprehensive and covers a wide spectrum of important spreadsheet software topics. Nonetheless, there are topics I cover in my class, which are not covered in this textbook e. Managing multiple worksheets and workbooks. Developing macros. The text does a good job explaining spreadsheet software. This is a typical problem with technical textbooks as technology evolves quickly.
The content is clear, accessible, and easy to follow. I suggest using a sans-serif font throughout the e-book and also additional font colors in the paragraphs to enhance clarity. The text is divided into logical sections that are independent. The e-book's components may be separated and recombined, without presenting much disruption to the reader. No interface issues. The navigation is simple and easy to follow.
However, many of the figures are outdated. I appreciate the overall quality of this text. The author utilized many means e. Good job! I suggest updating the material to show the most recent version of EXCEL, incorporating additional topics, and adding a teacher's reference guide and solution files.
Thank you! This is an extremely comprehensive book that provides a significant level of detail guiding the user from the very introductory stages of how to use the software program through more advanced applications.
I was particularly appreciative of the I was particularly appreciative of the level of specific detail that the author used in describing even the most basic of steps. One of the biggest complaints that I've heard from students who use technology textbooks is that authors sometimes assume that students know more than they actually do. This author is clearly not neglected the basics and no minor detail has been left out. I also particularly like that the author has made the program relevant to a variety of different types of users.
This description of Excel is pertinent for students of business who will be using this type of program in their careers but it is also pertinent to students from other majors in that it includes examples such as how to manage personal financial scenarios.
Thus, the reach of this textbook goes far beyond just business students. I was a little disappointed that this book does not include a table of contents nor does it include a glossary. While hyperlinks are included within each chapter that refer the student to other chapters, having a table of contents would help students not only see the broad picture of what the text actually covers but would also provide the opportunity for students to be able to easily access sections that they need to improve on such as in the case where there using the textbook as a reference source.
It is also worthy to note that the book provides a significant number of graphics that actually show students where to click how to click and where certain components are found in the program as well as providing step-by-step instructions on how to perform various steps.
The graphics are substantial and frequent and really adds a significant extra dimension to the coverage. The textbook appears to be very accurate in that the directions provided in each of the assignments appear to be. I can only imagine how much of a challenge that must be given each new edition of the software program. I also found no evidence of any bias although it is difficult to infuse bias into a software manual. The content in this book is very current and certainly relevant but as I mentioned in the previous section I would hope the author would be able to update as new additions or versions of the software are developed.
Much of the material or the processes covered in the book are fairly standard and I believe will not become obsolete at least not in the near future. Generally with the development of new Microsoft programs, minor changes such as the location of the tab or other tool or the addition of minor functionalities seem to be about the norm. I don't suspect it would be very difficult than to update this textbook to reflect those minor changes. The exception, of course, would be if a completely revamped version of the program was developed.
I think back to the rollout of Microsoft Vista and how different Vista was from previous operating systems. While most will agree that Vista was not a good product, much of the consternation resulted from the drastic differences that existed with the new rollout.
Again, spreadsheet software, whether it be Excel or a Google worksheet generally maintain standard functionalities so updating a book such as this should be terribly difficult. I think this book is extremely clear and how it is written and in how the material is laid out.
There is an appropriate blend of text, listed instructions and graphics along with appropriate hyperlinks that allow for ease of navigation within the document. I think this is certainly appropriate for an online text book and I think most students would find this to be very user-friendly.
Again, as I mentioned in my original narrative beginning of this assessment, one of the things I particularly like about this book is that it is written in a simple and easily understandable or met such that even the most novice of computer users could follow along and master the skills and concepts covered. I think this is a real competitive advantage with this book whether it is being used as a textbook as part of a formal class or if it was being used as a textbook to serve as reference material.
This textbook seems very consistent in how it's formatted and it is difficult to see any variations in either chapter layout, writing style or level of detail from the beginning to the end. The terminology is extremely basic and clear which again makes this textbook ideal for both the novice or the more advanced learner to use as a reference source.
I also particularly like the starter files and the links used to access the starter files really blending the chapter material to actual worksheets. This is a particularly important formatting issue for me because I understand that many students don't necessarily read a textbook from page 1 to the end and given that this textbook has pages I find it highly likely they would do so here. For example, in section 4. Again, that makes the reference capability of this textbook extremely important.
The organizational flow of this textbook is appropriate, especially for an entry-level textbook. It begins with the most basic elements of using Microsoft Excel such as how to open the program or even where to find the program in the start menu. You may be surprised to find the number of students who, when setting down to a computer for the first time, cannot figure out how to open a Microsoft program unless that program specifically has an icon on the desktop. This author starts the very basics in getting students to be able to understand how to even get the program open where to look for it.
The text then, at an appropriate pace, develops the students understanding of Excel in a very thorough yet realistic manner. There is little doubt that, again based on the organizational structure of the book, beginning students who have no experience with Excel and maybe even feel very uncomfortable with computers in general, will find the pace appropriate for any level of expertise.
I found no navigational problems. The links, more specifically the hyperlinks, seem to work appropriately and all of the Excel links were present. It's really difficult to answer this in terms of cultural relevance technology textbook that is being used to develop the skill set so there is very little cultural relevance that should be evaluated. In summary, I find this book to be an excellent tool that can be used in either classroom or in a reference setting.
When I was trying to decide on which book to review, this book stood out because, at least initially, I noticed the graphics and I noticed a very clear sustained how to format of the chapter sections. It is highly likely that I would use this book in future classes. The textbook provides comprehensive coverage of the fundamental skills of Excel, including mathematical computations, logical and lookup computations and presenting data with charts. The scope and sequence of the material is sufficiently detailed The scope and sequence of the material is sufficiently detailed and logically organized.
The step-by-step instructions are clearly written and easy to follow. The content includes screenshot examples and skill refresher and lesson videos which add value to the overall comprehensiveness of the content.
The textbook does not cover working with tables which is a required components of our curriculum. The textbook uses Windows 7 and Excel which are not the current versions of either, so modifications would be necessary for some sections of the text. With some modifications along with additional supplemental materials, students could complete the chapters and assignments from this text regardless of the version of Windows or Excel being used.
The text is written in clear, understandable language. Terminology is further clarified through the use of screen shots and in many of the skill refresher and lesson videos. The textbook is consistent in terms of both terminology and framework. Each chapter begins with detailed learning objectives followed by an introduction of the chapter content. Section exercises are included which provide multiple choice questions so students can check their understanding of the content as they progress through the chapter, and end of chapter assignments ranging from easy to difficult are provided so students can apply the skills learned.
Hands on chapter tests are also included for each chapter. The text is divided into smaller reading sections within each chapter which could easily be pulled out and used independently. Each chapter is built around skills which are presented in a logical and clear order. The topics introduced build on each other moving the student from simple understanding to complex application of the skills being taught.
The text is free from any significant interface issues. The text and images are clear and easy to read. Images are appropriately labeled. The text is not culturally insensitive or offensive in any way. While requiring some updating, this text covers most of the bases for a beginning Excel class.
Due to the abundant use of screen shots and video components, the text may need to be evaluated for accessibility in order to accommodate students who require educational accommodations. The skills covered in the text are very comprehensive including a lot of screen prints.
My concern with the text is that it is written for Excel , and we are already teaching Excel At first, I thought this was a major drawback; but I worked through parts of the book in Excel , and it worked fine.
The only chapter that would not work in it's entirety is the charts chapter since charts changed significantly in Thinking about it some more, I think we could possibly teach the basics of charts with the chapter and then use other materials to teach the specific features of charts in I plan on testing the book with Excel which I just installed on my laptop. If most of the text will work with this new version, that would mean the book is largely "version-free", and that's what we're looking for!
I think the text is written is accessible language for students. It has a good deal of business concepts in chapters 2 and 3, but they are explained well. The videos that accompany the book are very easy to understand and the technical language is not overdone. I really like the framework of the text. At the end of each chapter, there are three levels of skills review and a Level 2 test. The modularity of the text was good. I felt we could take portions of the text and use them without having to use a whole chapter or the whole text.
The videos, exercises, and tests could also be pulled out and use as stand alone resources which is a big plus in computer classes. As stated in question 5, the consistent layout of each section and chapter made the text flow logically.
The video and data file links did not work in the current copy of the book in www. This would need to be fixed in order for the book to be useable in our classes.
The screen prints were clear and easily read. The examples in the book were business-oriented vs. To do that, it requires three arguments: a lookup value, a lookup array, and a match type. In this case, the lookup value is the longest text string:. Finally, the INDEX function takes these arguments: an array, and a row and column number within that array. The cell range C9:C13 provides the array, the MATCH function provides the cell address, and the final argument 1 specifies that the value comes from the first column in the array.
For example:. You can use the ROW function to create an array of consecutive integers. For example, select an empty and enter:. The formula creates a column of 10 consecutive integers. To see a potential problem, insert a row above the range that contains the array formula that is, above row 1. Excel adjusts the row references, and the formula now generates integers from 2 to Excel does not adjust text values when you insert rows or otherwise move the array formula.
As a result, the ROW function always generates the array of integers that you want. The ROW function in turn generates a three-cell column array. Sum a range that contains error values. This example shows you how to sum the values in a range named Data that contains errors:. The formula creates a new array that contains the original values minus any error values.
In this case, it returns empty strings "" for all error values because they evaluate to TRUE, and it returns the remaining values from the range Data because they evaluate to FALSE, meaning that they don't contain error values. The SUM function then calculates the total for the filtered array. Count the number of error values in a range.
This example is like the previous formula, but it returns the number of error values in a range named Data instead of filtering them out:. This formula creates an array that contains the value 1 for the cells that contain errors and the value 0 for the cells that don't contain errors.
You can simplify the formula and achieve the same result by removing the third argument for the IF function, like this:. You can simplify the formula even more:. For example, this array formula sums just the positive integers in a range named Sales, which represents cells E9:E24 in the example above:. The IF function creates an array of positive and false values. The cell range that you use in this formula can consist of any number of rows and columns.
You can also sum values that meet more than one condition. For example, this array formula calculates values greater than 0 AND less than Keep in mind that this formula returns an error if the range contains one or more non-numeric cells. You can also create array formulas that use a type of OR condition. For example, you can sum values that are greater than 0 OR less than You can work around the problem by using the logic shown in the previous formula.
In other words, you perform math operations, such as addition or multiplication on values that meet the OR or AND condition. This example shows you how to remove zeros from a range when you need to average the values in that range. The formula uses a data range named Sales:.
This array formula compares the values in two ranges of cells named MyData and YourData and returns the number of differences between the two. If the contents of the two ranges are identical, the formula returns 0.
To use this formula, the cell ranges need to be the same size and of the same dimension. For example, if MyData is a range of 3 rows by 5 columns, YourData must also be 3 rows by 5 columns:.
The formula creates a new array of the same size as the ranges that you are comparing. The IF function fills the array with the value 0 and the value 1 0 for mismatches and 1 for identical cells. The SUM function then returns the sum of the values in the array. This array formula returns the row number of the maximum value in a single-column range named Data:.
The IF function creates a new array that corresponds to the range named Data. If a corresponding cell contains the maximum value in the range, the array contains the row number. Otherwise, the array contains an empty string "". The MIN function uses the new array as its second argument and returns the smallest value, which corresponds to the row number of the maximum value in Data. If the range named Data contains identical maximum values, the formula returns the row of the first value.
You'll find similar examples in the sample workbook on the Differences between datasets worksheet. Sales Person. Car Type. Number Sold. Unit Price. Total Sales.
This happens very quickly, so what you see in column E is the total sales amount for each car type for each salesperson. In this case, Excel multiplies the values in the array the cell range C2 through D11 and then uses the SUM function to add the totals together. Also, notice that the single-cell formula in cell D13 is completely independent of the multi-cell formula the formula in cells E2 through E You could change the formulas in column E or delete that column altogether, without affecting the formula in D Array formulas also offer these advantages:.
Consistency If you click any of the cells from E2 downward, you see the same formula. Safety You cannot overwrite a component of a multi-cell array formula. For example, click cell E3 and press Delete. You have to either select the entire range of cells E2 through E11 and change the formula for the entire array, or leave the array as is. For example, the workbook uses one array formula to calculate the results in column E. In general, array formulas use standard formula syntax.
When you do this, Excel surrounds your array formula with braces — if you type the braces manually, your formula will be converted to a text string, and it won't work. Array functions can be an efficient way to build complex formulas.
This applies to both single-cell and multi-cell formulas. Select the range of cells to hold your results before you enter the formula. You did this when you created the multi-cell array formula when you selected cells E2 through E You can't change the contents of an individual cell in an array formula.
To try this, select cell E3 in the workbook and press Delete. Excel displays a message that tells you that you can't change part of an array. You can move or delete an entire array formula, but you can't move or delete part of it. In other words, to shrink an array formula, you first delete the existing formula and then start over.
To delete an array formula, select the entire formula range for example, E2:E11 , then press Delete. At times, you may need to expand an array formula.
Select the first cell in existing array range, and continue until you've selected the entire range that you want to extend the formula to. The key is to select the entire range, starting with the top-left cell in the array. The top-left cell is the one that gets edited. It can happen to even the most experienced Excel users. Remember to press this key combination whenever you enter or edit an array formula. Other users of your workbook might not understand your formulas.
In practice, array formulas are generally not explained in a worksheet. Therefore, if other people need to modify your workbooks, you should either avoid array formulas or make sure those people know about any array formulas and understand how to change them, if they need to. Depending on the processing speed and memory of your computer, large array formulas can slow down calculations. Because array constants are a component of array formulas, you surround the constants with braces by manually typing them.
To create a two-dimensional array, you delimit the items in each row by using commas and delimit each row by using semicolons. In the two row array, the first row is 1, 2, 3, and 4, and the second row is 5, 6, 7, and 8. A single semicolon separates the two rows, between 4 and 5. As with array formulas, you can use array constants with most of the built-in functions that Excel provides.
The following sections explain how to create each kind of constant and how to use these constants with functions in Excel. Notice that Excel surrounds the constant with another set of braces, because you entered it as an array formula. Remember that Excel does not surround array constants with braces; you actually type them.
Because Excel performs operations on expressions enclosed in parentheses first, the next two elements that come into play are the values stored in the workbook A1:E1 and the operator.
Finally, the SUM function adds the values, and the sum 85 appears in cell A3. To avoid using the stored array and to just keep the operation entirely in memory, replace the stored array with another array constant:. You'll see the same result as you did in the earlier exercise that used the array formula:.
You can use numbers in the integer, decimal, and scientific formats. If you include text, you need to surround the text with quotation marks ". Excel's capabilities don't stop there. If you're looking for Excel templates to use at home, consider a weekly chore schedule or household to-do list. Free Excel templates take the stress away from having to remember whose turn it is to clean the bathrooms or wash the dishes. Similarly, templates for Excel spreadsheet s can also help you with short and long-term budgeting.
These spreadsheets come with a wide array of built-in formulas that auto-complete after you fill out the first few rows. Any list or chart you can conceive of, an Excel template is there for you. Explore premium templates Bring your ideas to life with more customizable templates and new creative options when you subscribe to Microsoft
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